Features

Spotlight on Safety: Driving in the Dark…TrueCar Reminds You to Set Your Clocks Back on November 6!

November 05, 2010

Hey people, when you shift the clocks in your home forward to end Daylight Savings Time this weekend, don’t forget to also change the clocks in your car! And while we’re on the subject, it’s also extremely important that drivers take extra care when navigating residential neighborhoods while adapting to the decreased amount of daylight. During this time of year as the days become much shorter and more kids are out and about in these twilight hours before/after school, it is critical for drivers to have excellent visibility so that they can see better and are able to recognize other vehicles, debris, animals, and especially pedestrians.

Interestingly, a recent survey commissioned by Sylvania (the leader in automotive lighting), suggests that half of American drivers desire better visibility during nighttime driving, and that many actually avoid traveling in the dark.

The survey, conducted by KRC Research, assessed drivers’ attitudes about nighttime driving. The data were gathered through a telephone survey of 1,014 adults nationwide with a total of 943 licensed drivers. The survey was conducted September 16 – September 19, 2010. Additional results from the survey reveal:

– 51 percent of drivers would feel safer at night with brighter headlights; the majority of drivers aged 18-34 would feel safer.
– 45 percent of men say they wish they could see better at night while behind the wheel.- 34 percent of respondents report inadequate headlights as the main reason for poor nighttime visibility.
– Uncertainty about nighttime driving was more prominent with female drivers. 57 percent wish they could see the road better at night, and women are twice as likely as men (24 percent vs. 12 percent) to avoid driving at night because of difficulty seeing.
– Sylvania offers the following headlight safety tips to coincide with the increased darkness that occurs this time of year. First of all, check your headlights by parking on a level surface facing five feet from a building wall or your garage door, then turn on your headlights. If the circles of light are bright and white, they are in good, working condition. If they are yellow or dim, the bulbs should be replaced.
– Always change headlight bulbs in pairs, suggests Sylvania. Because bulbs dim over time, the new one will likely be brighter than the old one, causing an uneven field of illumination. This can be distracting to both the driver and to oncoming traffic.
– Some drivers may also be struggling to see at night because their headlight lenses have degraded. Hazy lenses restrict and alter light output but can easily be restored to like new performance with a special kit, so consider a headlight restoration kit, which restores headlight housings to like-new condition and light output.

About Daylight Savings TimeIt was Benjamin Franklin who first proposed voluntary time shifts to account for the varying amounts of sunlight as the seasons changed throughout the year. Daylight Saving Time legislation first became law in 1918 – as part of the Federal Act, which also established our national Standard Time Zones – and various regions of the United States have optionally implemented Daylight Saving Time ever since then.

According to Buhl Planetarium “Many municipalities did continue to use Daylight Saving Time, and many did not. And, the beginning and ending dates, each year, of Daylight Saving Time often varied from one community to another. This became very confusing, and very costly for some industries–particularly transportation industries such as the railroads, bus companies, and airlines, and also for radio and television broadcasters.”

President Lyndon B. Johnson finally enacted the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to set standard beginning and ending dates for Daylight Saving Time across the United States Currently, we set the clocks one hour ahead at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March to “spring forward” into Daylight Savings Time and “Fall Back” at 2 a.m. on the first Sunday in November to return to Standard Time.

For more information about the full line of headlight replacement bulbs from Sylvania or to view an online catalog, visit the Sylvania website. While there, you can also download Sylvania’s free iPhone app at the iTunes store, which makes it easy for drivers to find the correct replacement headlights, signal bulbs and almost all other auto bulbs for their car, truck, van, or SUV.